


Call It Crazy, Call It Meant to Be

by closetbidisaster



Series: Malibu Nights [3]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Band Fic, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26846944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closetbidisaster/pseuds/closetbidisaster
Summary: It was prettier than poetry the first time you said hello to meCall it crazy, call it meant to be, yeahBut it didn't take me long to seeThat you mean more than anyoneOrMal joins the band on tour & meets Lindsey's girlfriend's best friend, Rose
Relationships: Lindsey Horan/Emily Sonnett, Mallory Pugh/Rose Lavelle
Series: Malibu Nights [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1816003
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Call It Crazy, Call It Meant to Be

**Author's Note:**

> Please enjoy this 4.6k LaPugh spiral

“C’mon, Kel, just pick someone already,” Lindsey groans, stretching her arms over her head as she tries to shake the tiredness from her.

The band’s frontwoman had gone and broken her hand while skating down the boardwalk, and according to Tobin, showing off for some cute girls, two days ago, meaning she was going to be useless on the keys during tour. This unfortunate situation left the band in a frantic scramble, trying to find an adequate keyboardist who knew their songs, or could pick them up quickly before they left.

The album hadn’t been out long and their tour was scheduled to kick-off in a little over a week’s time, meaning they were getting desperate. Tobin had decided she was cool with whoever, while Ashlyn said they should find a way to get Kelley to play one-handed.

So, Lindsey and Kelley were left to choose the person who would join them for the first six weeks, at least, of tour.

“I mean,” Kelley scans two different papers as she hums, “I really liked Pugh, but she’s pretty young…”

“So?”

“So...we’re gonna be touring the world and she’s, what, eighteen?”

Lindsey blinks at her bandmate, slightly confused.

“You do realize you’re only twenty-two, right?”

“That’s four years!”

“Okay,” Lindsey drags the word out a bit. “I’m only nineteen.”

Kelley considers this for a minute and Lindsey waits, knowing she doesn’t have to say anything. Kelley will eventually cave; Lindsey can tell she really wants to hire the younger girl. She can see the gears turning in the older girl’s head. When Kelley grabs her phone and starts dialing, Lindsey smiles - both in relief and happiness. Relief because it meant they were done listening to auditions and could let their agent know they had found someone. Happiness because she had been right: she knew they would agree on the keyboardist.

“Hi, Mal?” Kelley’s voice sounds bright and it makes Lindsey’s smile widen. “How would you like to see Europe and play music for some of the best fans in the world?”

Lindsey can’t hear the younger girl’s exact words, but she can hear the excitement in her voice, and Kelley’s, as the two of them talk brief logistics and confirm their departure date. When Kelley hangs up, she looks at Lindsey with excitement and Lindsey can feel her own eagerness for tour growing.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

An entire week off when one is a professional athlete is hard to come by. And yet, Emily and Rose somehow found themselves with a week to themselves, wandering around Ireland. Emily had debated flying out to join Lindsey and the others for a week of the tour, and when Rose mentioned she was wanting to visit somewhere new, she checked the tour schedule and found their first four shows overlapped with the players’ vacation.

So she had called Lindsey to let her know she would be bringing Rose to the show, asking for two tickets to be set aside. Her girlfriend hadn’t hesitated, beyond excited to see the soccer player face to face for the first time in, what felt like, far too long. Now, she only had to convince Rose to join her.

Which proved to be more difficult than she had thought it would be.

“Rose, come on, why not?”

“Look, Sonny, if you wanna go to the show and see Lindsey, by all means, go have a good time. But, I want to stay in and read tonight.”

Emily frowns at her best friend.

“When did you get old?”

Rose looks up from her book and gives her an unimpressed look.

“I’m not old,” she retorts. “I’m just trying to utilize my downtime.”

“By being boring?”

Rose groans and closes her book, glaring at Emily, who grins. She knows she has won.

“Why do you care if I go or not? Aren’t you going to see Lindsey?”

“I’m going to see everyone, first of all,” Rose rolls her eyes, “plus they’re gonna be on stage for a while so I need someone to hang out with during the show.”

Rose studies her for a moment and she grins at her, waiting for her to fully cave.

“Fine,” the smaller girl stands and walks towards the bedroom, “but I’m not getting dressed up for your friends.”

-

Lindsey was talking to the crowd as she got ready to play _Sweet Creature,_ meaning the rest of the band was off the stage at the moment. As the other three band members wandered backstage to get changed and re-hydrate, Emily set about introducing Rose to them, knowing she would likely have to re-introduce them after the show.

“Rose, these are my friends Kelley, Tobin, and Ashlyn,” Emily gestures toward the band members who wave. “Guys, this is Rose Lavelle, my teammate, and future national team star.”

Emily grins as her best friend blushes.

“You can just call me Rose,” she tells them.

Shaking hands with the band members, Rose falls into easy conversation as Emily wanders to the side of the stage to watch Lindsey perform. The song ends and Lindsey quickly looks to the side, at Emily, a shy smile covering her face as she turns back to the crowd to talk to them once more while the rest of the band returns to stage.

Emily remains in place, prompting Rose to come join her and allowing her to see the rest of the stage, and the apparent fifth band member she had missed the entire night. Turning to Emily, she gestures toward the girl toward the back of the stage.

“Who’s that?”

“Mal Pugh,” Emily responds.

“Is she part of the band?”

Emily half-nods.

“She joined at the last minute to play keys when Kelley broke her hand a couple of weeks ago. I guess they all get along really well and the fans love her, so it sounds like they’re gonna keep her the whole tour,” she explains.

Rose’s gaze remains on the keyboardist as a “huh” slips out.

“What?”

She shakes her head and shrugs, eyes still trained on the girl on stage.

“Nothing.”

She finds herself watching the background keyboardist more than the actual band for the remainder of the show.

When the concert ends and the band exits the stage, each one has a giant smile plastered on their face. Ashlyn passes off her drumsticks to an assistant, while Lindsey hands over her guitar, and Tobin her bass before joining Emily, Rose, and Kelley, who hadn’t had anything to hand off. Having a broken hand meant no instruments for the foreseeable future. Her doctor had told her even if she would be able to play the guitar at some point this tour, it wouldn't be a lot and she would have to be careful.

Emily sets about quickly re-introducing Rose to the girls she had met previously, who nod in recognition as it sticks that they had met her earlier. Emily then grabs Rose and walks her away from the group toward the couch where Mal was sitting and scrolling through her phone.

“Hey, Mal,” Emily greets and the keyboardist looks up.

“Hey, Sonny, it’s good to see you in person finally,” she laughs. “Now I can apologize for interrupting all those FaceTime dates between you and Lindsey.”

Emily waves her off with a smile.

“Not a problem. Actually, I wanted you to meet somebody. This,” she nods to her best friend, “is Rose. Rose, this is Mal.”

Mal seems to just realize Rose is standing next to Emily and she blinks, a semi-dazed look coming over her face.

“Hi,” she finally says.

“Hey,” Rose responds.

Emily looks between the two, slightly confused. She didn’t know Mal that well but she hadn’t seemed that awkward when they had met over FaceTime, and she certainly didn’t appear awkward on stage, playing in front of thousands of fans the past four nights. And she had never known Rose to be this quiet when meeting someone new.

“Right,” Emily clears her throat. “I’m gonna go talk to Lindsey and them. I’ll leave you two to,” she gives a vague wave of the hand, “get acquainted.”

She leaves which seems to snap Rose and Mal out of their equally-dumbfounded states. The keyboardist shifts, moving to make space on the couch and gestures toward the now empty space.

“Would you like to sit?”

Rose gives a small smile and sits down as Mal takes a sip from her water bottle.

“Apologies for being all hot and sweaty,” Mal laughs, “but Kelley has first dibs on the shower after shows.”

“It’s alright,” Rose smiles, “I’m a professional athlete, I know all about sharing showers.”

Mal immediately looks intrigued, turning her body to properly face Rose.

“You’re an athlete? Do you play soccer with Sonny? Is that how you know her?”

Rose nods, slightly laughing at the girl’s enthusiasm.

“Yeah, we play together in Orlando. And we live together during the season.”

“That’s so cool.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty great,” she agrees. “What about you? What do you do when you’re not touring the world with one of the biggest bands in the world?”

She over-exaggerates the phrase on purpose in an attempt to get the other girl to laugh. It works, and the sound of Mal laughing leaves Rose stunned and forgetting what she had said.

“I go to school in Pasadena. I’m working on my music composition degree,” Mal responds. “Well, I was. I’m not going back in fall because of the tour, but I’ll be back in the spring.”

Rose nods along despite not really understanding what was being said. She had gone to college with the intent of playing soccer and getting a degree in something easy. She had then left college early, declaring for the draft, and was now living out her dream of being a professional soccer player in Orlando.

Going to school to get a degree in music seems a little strange to her, but she figures she has no room to judge.

“Hey, Rose,” Emily calls her. “It’s time to go.”

“Just a sec,” Rose waves her off, not even looking in her direction.

“It’s alright,” Mal smiles. “I gotta go clean up anyway. I had a good time talking to you tonight, be safe getting back.”

The keyboardist stands and goes to leave, stopping only when Rose grabs her wrist.

“Wait,” Mal looks at her, slightly amused and slightly confused. “Could I maybe get your number? I had a good time talking to you, too, and would like to continue talking to you if that’s something you also want.”

She could feel herself rambling, but she couldn’t stop. Not until Mal giggles slightly, rendering Rose speechless once more. The smaller girl grabs her phone and unlocks it, passing it off to Rose who quickly enters her number and hands it back with a shy smile. Pocketing her phone once more, Mal starts walking backward toward the dressing room.

“I’m glad I met you tonight, Rose. Good night.”

She then turns around and enters the room, leaving Rose standing there wondering what the hell was happening to her.

* * *

“I still don’t get it.”

Lindsey sighs, trying to remain patient. When Mal had asked to watch Emily’s game with her, she hadn’t thought much of it. She enjoyed spending time with the younger girl, they all did. When Mal had revealed she had virtually no knowledge of the game, Lindsey had begun attempting to give her a brief rundown as the game went on, explaining specifics as different situations occurred.

She hadn’t realized it would be so _painful._ Mal, bless her heart, still could not understand the sport.

“Do you at least know which team you’re supposed to be cheering for?”

She’s only half-joking.

“Rose’s,” Mal answers with zero hesitation and getting Lindsey to look at her curiously.

_“Rose’s_ team, huh?”

The younger girl looks away, suddenly finding her slippers very interesting as Lindsey studies her. The older blonde looks away when she hears the whistle, signaling the end of the game, and smiles when the camera pans over the Orlando players, more specifically, over Emily. As the feed goes to commercials, Lindsey turns the television off and sends a quick text to her girlfriend before standing.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“What? Go where?”

“Well, first to a store so we can buy a ball.”

“What do we need a ball for?”

Lindsey tosses Mal’s shoes to her before answering.

“I’m gonna show you how to play soccer.”

“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Mal says, slipping her shoes on. “Then I can impress-I mean I can show off my skills to Sonny and Rose.”

Lindsey shakes her head with a smile. She knew what Mal had really meant, even if the younger girl wouldn’t say it out loud.

She wants to impress Rose.

-

“How can you be so bad at this?” Lindsey asks half in bewilderment and half-impressed by Mal’s lack of skill.

“I’m nervous,” Mal responds as she kicks the ball back to Lindsey. Well, as she tries to. It goes about ten yards too far to the right.

“What are you nervous about?” Lindsey tentatively asks after retrieving the ball, thinking she already knows the answer but wanting to hear it directly from Mal.

“Well, I was talking to Sonny last week,” she starts, “and she mentioned that Rose loves soccer more than anything…”

“Uh-huh?”

Mal nods, eyes following the ball’s every move so she doesn’t have to look at her friend.

“And she sorta doesn’t know that I don’t know anything about soccer.”

Lindsey traps the ball and looks at her friend.

“You know you can learn about soccer without playing?”

“You’re the one who suggested playing!”

“I know,” Lindsey laughs, “but I didn’t know you’d be this bad at it.”

“You’re not helping.”

“Right, sorry,” Lindsey kicks the ball to her once more. “Well, what’s it matter if she finds out?”

Mal looks at her as if she had just sprouted a second head.

“Did you not hear me say she loves soccer more than anything?”

“Yeah, I heard you.”

“So what are you not getting?”

Lindsey shrugs, kicking the ball up to herself and tapping it up a few times before lobbing it back to Mal.

“I’ve just never seen you this nervous before.”

Mal sets her right foot atop the ball and places her hands on her hips, finally looking at Lindsey.

“I’ve never felt like this before.”

* * *

She’s supposed to be in Austin right now, they have a show in two days. Instead, she is walking into a soccer stadium in Houston for the first time in her life. The amount of caffeine running through her system is definitely unhealthy, but she is determined to see the game.

She doesn’t expect to be recognized, so when she gets stopped a couple of times, she is more than a little surprised. Still, she takes the photos quickly and then hurries to make her way inside and up toward the suites.

She reaches her box and enters, immediately heading for a seat. Unzipping her windbreaker, Mal sheds her outer layer and smiles down at the purple jersey she is wearing. She hears the door open and close, and she turns around, smiling at Lindsey as she makes her way down toward her.

“Hey, sorry, got caught in traffic,” she tells her, adjusting her own purple jersey.

“Car traffic or fan traffic?”

Lindsey laughs, eyes scanning the field for her girlfriend as the players make their way to the field for warmups.

“Both, I guess. I didn’t really think about fans, honestly. I was focused on getting here to see Em.”

Mal nods, her eyes also scanning the field for a certain someone.

“Yeah, I actually got stopped a couple of times which I was _not_ expecting.”

“Aw, our Lil MalMal is becoming famous,” Lindsey teases, laughing harder when Mal shoves her.

“It was weird.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

Mal just hums in response.

“So,” Lindsey finally gets her to look at her, “when are you gonna ask Rose out?”

-

Rose scores late in the game to tie it up and her team goes crazy. Emily reaches her first, hugging her and whispering her ear. The midfielder’s eyes drift toward the suite and when she sees Mal, a smile crosses her face. Turning back to her friend, they share a laugh and Emily gives her a little nudge as they make their way back for kick-off.

When the final whistle blows, Lindsey and Mal make their way down to the tunnel to wait for Emily and Lindsey. The two players leave the locker room at the same time, laughing about something as they walk toward the other two.

“Hey, superstar,” Lindsey greets Emily, hugging her and kissing her cheek.

“Hey, rockstar.”

Rose smiles shyly at Mal, kicking a foot out and tapping Mal’s shin.

“Hey, you.”

“Hey, nice goal tonight.”

“Scored it for you,” Rose replies, grinning when Mal blushes.

“Can I take you out to dinner to celebrate?”

Rose nods, blushing herself and looking at the floor for a second before returning her gaze to Mal.

“Yeah,” she smiles, “I’d like that.”

* * *

The Nashville crowd was insane, to say the least. They were somewhat close to home, and they had played a handful of shows in Nashville before moving to Malibu, meaning they had a decent following there before releasing their album.

The fans hadn’t stopped singing their lyrics back to them the entire night, and the band was _loving_ it. They had just finished performing _Heartless,_ meaning it was time for the solo songs. Ashlyn, Tobin, Lindsey, and Mal left the stage as Kelley got set at the piano. Lindsey’s so focused on getting to the dressing room to get changed that she nearly blows right past Emily and Rose who are standing in the hallway.

Doing a double-take, her steps falter and her heart skips a beat. She barely registers Mal pushing past her and practically jumping on Rose, too busy standing still as Emily approaches her with a smile.

“Surprise,” she grins.

Lindsey snaps out of her daze and surges forward, hugging her girlfriend tightly.

“What are you doing here?”

“International break, we’ve got a couple of weeks off,” Emily reminds her. “And Rose was practically _begging_ me to bring her to see Mal.”

“God, I love you,” Lindsey kisses Emily.

“I love you, too.”

Spotting Mal across the room, Lindsey gets an idea. Telling Emily she will be right back, she walks over to the other two girls and grabs the keyboardist, pulling her away from Rose.

“Wha-hey! I was talking to Rose, what are you doing?”

“Would you want to perform tonight?”

Mal looks at her confused.

“What?”

“The song we wrote a couple of weeks ago. Do you wanna perform it tonight?”

Mal’s eyes widen.

“We-Lindsey, we were just word vomiting when I was _freaking out_ about Rose.”

“It’s a good song though. The others loved it.”

“I dunno, Linds…”

“C’mon, Mal. We all know you can sing, and I’m not performing it alone. You can join me after _Sweet Creature_ and we’ll duet it.”

Mal quickly looks at Rose, who flashes a smile, before turning back to Lindsey.

“Fine, but if this ends poorly, it’s on you.”

Lindsey smiles and looks toward the stage, realizing it’s her turn. She grabs her guitar and walks out, immediately feeling the crowd’s excitement. The excitement only grows when Lindsey finishes her solo song, but the band doesn’t rejoin her.

“Okay, who wants to hear a new song?”

The crowd gets louder, but Lindsey pretends she can’t hear them.

“What was that?”

The noise level increases even more, so much so that Lindsey can hear it over the sound of her guitar in her ears. She smiles and looks to the side of the stage, nodding at Mal who looks more nervous than usual, fingers tapping at her mic-pack as she joins Lindsey on stage.

“Alright, guys, give it up for our keyboardist, Mal!”

The crowd cheers as the younger girl waves, getting her mic-stand situated.

“Okay,” Lindsey continues, “so this is a song that Mal and I wrote, what, a couple weeks ago?”

Mal nods.

“Yeah, and it’s always a bit scary to put something out there especially so soon after making it, but,” Mal glances to the side of the stage quickly, “we’ve got a couple of special people here tonight and we want to dedicate this song to them.”

She nods to Lindsey who starts strumming and closes her eyes, letting herself get lost in the song.

She keeps them closed until they reach the end of the song, finally turning to face Rose and singing the final lines to her as the crowd seems to fade away.

_And I don’t care what they say_

_And I don’t care what they say_

_Care what they say to me_

_I’m doing it differently_

_Baby, I’m doing it differently_

And if there were videos all over social media the next morning begging to know who Mal was singing about/to, well that was that.

* * *

Any doubt Mal may have had about inviting Rose to spend time with her in Denver is obliterated the second she sees the soccer player exiting the terminal, suitcase being pulled by one hand and a coffee in the other. Putting her sunglasses on, Mal exits the car and waves the older girl down, smiling brightly as she approaches.

Rose lets go of her suitcase and hugs Mal as soon as she reaches her. 

“I missed you,” the Orlando player says.

“I missed you, too,” Mal responds, pulling back and grabbing Rose’s luggage. “Welcome to Denver, Rosie.”

Rose smiles, getting in the car as Mal puts the suitcase in the back. She then gets back in the driver’s seat, putting the car in gear and pulling out to leave the airport.

“How was your flight?”

Rose shrugs.

“Fine, I guess. Nothing I’m not used to. How’s it been being home?”

Mal feels a smile automatically cross her face as she thinks about being _home._

“It’s been really good. Relaxing. But,” she laughs slightly, “I miss the girls. I know we spent the last five months together, but-”

“It’s weird being away from them.”

“Exactly.”

Rose shifts in her seat, looking down when she hears the sound of a paper crinkling. Bending down, she picks it up and looks at Mal.

“Hey, is this important?”

Mal glances over.

“No, I don’t-” she stops abruptly, realizing what it is as Rose turns it over, not expecting to see what she did.

“Are these...are these diagrams of soccer formations?”

“I, uh, I like to draw.”

“No, you don’t.”

Mal sighs, knowing she has been caught.

“I...don't know much about soccer and you love talking about it, so I wanted to learn about it,” she reveals. “So I can understand what you’re talking about.”

Rose’s heart rate spikes and she stares at Mal for a moment.

“Look, I-”

“That’s so cute,” Rose interrupts.

Mal smiles shyly, glancing over at her.

“You know, if you wanted to learn, you could’ve asked,” she continues.

“Well, I wanted you to think I already knew stuff.”

Rose chuckles and reaches over, grabbing Mal’s right hand and interlacing their fingers and placing a kiss to the younger girl’s hand.

“How about this? I teach you the basics of soccer and you can teach me how to play piano.”

Mal smiles and nods.

“I like the sound of that.”

* * *

Mal still wasn’t sure how she felt about the whole “semi-famous” thing. Touring with the band had skyrocketed her social media followers, and being friends with them gave her even more exposure _after_ the tour.

It also meant the paparazzi had started paying more attention to her. It was weird to wake up some days and open her phone to articles and photos being published about her and her “love life”. It was more or less always the same, who she was dating, if she was joining the band full-time, if she was putting out music for herself.

Walking into the studio today, she knew by the next morning, everyone would know. She had asked Rose to join her at the studio today, intent on showing her a new song. Since they hadn’t seen anyone around, Mal had felt comfortable grabbing Rose’s hand as they walked into the studio. When she saw the first flash, her head automatically turned as she tried to find the photographer. Her grip on Rose’s hand tightened and she sped up her pace, wanting to get inside as soon as possible.

She didn’t really care if people found out, but they had sort of been hoping to do it on their own terms, once they made it official. Which they hadn’t done yet.

She was working on it, though. That was sort of the point of bringing Rose to the studio today, alone, just the two of them.

She enjoyed being in the studio with the band. Writing with Tobin and Lindsey, playing piano with Kelley, getting drumming lessons from Ashlyn - it was all a lot of fun. But she loved time alone in the studio even more. The band was fun, but they didn’t exactly know the meaning of “quiet writing time” when it was all four of them.

She didn’t really have any plans to release music for herself, but she really liked writing. It was a good way to clear her mind and work through various situations. Writing Lindsey and Tobin during the tour had been a major source of stress relief and decompression from the craziness of traveling the world.

But today, her writing was making her nervous.

She’s sitting in the studio, trying to work up the nerve to playback the most recent song she has written, this one, by herself. Rose is sitting on the couch, waiting, as Mal stares at the soundboard.

“Mal?”

Snapping out of her thoughts, she pushes the playback button before she can continue to overthink it and walks to the couch to join Rose. She keeps her eyes on the recording booth, studying every detail she possibly can, too nervous to look at the other girl until the end of the song.

_I'm running in circles, jumping over hurdles, working on a song to sing_

_I wanna tell you how I'm feeling, finding it hard to do, so hard to do_

_'Cause I don't know how to say it, don't know how you'll take it_

_Don't know how to fall in love, but I wanna learn with you_

_Do you wanna learn? 'Cause I wanna learn, oh, with You_

_With You, with You_

She lets them sit in silence for a moment before clearing her throat.

“So, uh, what do you think?”

Rose smiles and grabs Mal’s hand, causing the younger girl to blush.

“I love it.”

“I-I wrote it for you, about you.”

Surprise colors Rose’s face and Mal feels her blush deepening as she looks down at their joined hands.

“That’s,” she pauses, studying the girl in front of her. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Mal looks up, locking eyes with the older girl and getting lost in her blue eyes.

Mal is a writer, a storyteller. She could paint a vivid picture with her words. She could pull real emotions out of beer-shotgunning frat boys. She knew how to write the most heartbreaking songs despite never having her heart broken, or breaking any hearts herself.

Her first kiss with Rose rendered her speechless and short-circuited her brain.

And she wouldn’t change anything about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Yell at me, I live for it.


End file.
